Lecce Eats: Le Zie
The last city on our tour was Lecce, and this was the last meal of the trip with my parents, because they had an early morning flight the next day.
At first we walked to one restaurant, but it was closed, so we came to another restaurant on our list, a bit further away from where we were staying.
Home cooking restaurant Le Zie. You have to ring the bell at the entrance, and wait for someone to come and open the door. Had we not arrived just after another couple who rang the bell, I would have thought that this restaurant was closed as well.
They proudly displayed some of their press, including Elle Japan!
The interior was indeed quite homey.
Here’s the first page of the menu in Italian.
And in English.
And the second page.
Our bread basket.
Having just had the revelation of ordering antipasti at Trattoria La Puritate in Gallipolli, we ordered the “antipasti misti della casa” here as well. The server recommended just two orders for the three of us.
We had grilled eggplant.
White beans with celery. Very refreshing.
Mushrooms with potato.
Fritter of unidentified ingredient, but it was tasty!
Salad of carrot, onion, potato, and olive.
A very nice antipasti spread!
We did order the fava puree with chicory. This was a very tasty version. The fava puree was pure fava, unlike the one mixed with potato at Masseria Salinola (which made that rendition delicious, but almost in a cheating way!). The chicory here was had bite and flavor to it.
And a few other first course dishes.
We got potatoes and cardi, which isn’t on the menu.
Tajeddra, again with potatoes, rice and mussels.
And finally, ciceri e tria, which is also a typical dish of the region, with boiled tria pasta, fried tria pasta (like wonton strips!), and chickpeas. Starchy!
We ended with the cassata cake, which they said was the specialty. I was the only one who wanted dessert, and the waitress joked, “my only friend!”
And our final bill.
With this meal, we learned from our last meal and ordered the antipasti (wonderful), had the fava puree and chicory again to compare a third version, and ordered a couple other typical Apulian dishes. A great finale to the trip!
